Poor show by American ref

Now usually after Thierry Henrys handy efforts at denying the Irish a world cup place I would usually be happy to see any decision go against him, karma can be a wonderful thing.

Its called 'foot' ball Thierry!

.....but the decision he was on the wrong end of this weekend in his New York sides 3-3 Draw with the Portland Timbers was absolutely shocking.  As can be seen in he video below after a bit of handbags/banter with the timbers Adam Moffat, Henry gave him a little tap or two on the back of the head, a bit condescending and patronising maybe but no way a red card offence, Moffat responded with a half hearted push and then the game went on only for the linesman and ref to halt play and discuss the incident. Any usual referee in this position would of told both players to grow up and get on with the game but not this ref, Henry received his marching orders with a straight red and Moffat got a yellow card for his troubles. 

What baffles me is I have seen poor decisions like this before but the tap/pat has been on the face so the refs hide behind the ‘never raise your hand to another players face rule’ but this was a little tap on the back of the head, how on earth the referee classes this as violent conduct I do not know. Needless to say New York’s sporting director Erik Soler was not impressed and issued a statement condemning the quality of refereeing in the match, extracts of which are here

"We have carefully reviewed the film of our match against Portland last night and I can safely say that the level of refereeing was absolutely below the standards of what is required for a MLS match and completely unacceptable.”

“...the red card given to Thierry Henry was inexplicable”

“There was no violent conduct on his part whatsoever and this decision was made by a linesman who was more than half a field away”

All valid points by Mr Soler and Baz and pals would be very surprised if the red card does not get rescinded

Henrys “violent” conduct – 

Big Baz